We left for Toronto way early, and made really good time. After checking into our hotel in some outlying suburb whose name I forget, we went off to the venue. When we got to the general area of the venue we of course took a wrong turn and drove in the wrong direction for several miles. We ended up getting there at around 3:30. We all peed on the way in (which turned out to be a very, very good idea).
This time around, we were up at the gate waiting for them to open it. While waiting, four of us played an epic game of ‘War’ and I emerged victorious. This killed an hour or two.
What we failed to realize was that there were three gates. waiting for hours and then seeing a surge of people pour in from a gate that is not the one you are waiting at sucks big. Seeing it happen again, sucks even worse. When they finally let our gate in, we got pretty close to the stage, but we were way to the left, almost in the middle of the giant screen.
It was super super hot, so people kept giving up and leaving the front area. Slowly but surely we moved in and up until we were very close and right in front of where Ed would be on stage.
Radiohead were once again fucking incredible. I must make the distinction of fucking incredible, because incredible isn’t a strong enough word for it. This show and the toronto show were two completely different experiences, because of the differing views. In Toronto I couldn’t see the screens at all unless I turned around. You can see my pictures from the Toronto show by clicking here.
We had made a sign with letters “N-U-D-E” out of hotel stationary to hold up in an attempt to convince the band to play the unreleased song that is commonly called either “Nude” or “Big Ideas.” At the beginning of the first encore, while all the white lights around the front of the crowd were up, we held it up so that Ed could see it. Another of our party who had managed to make it to the very front hollared for it, and they played it. This made me very, very, very happy. You can see the setlist and some reviews here.
Moving on to some other random Toronto Pictures, we find that Lays makes some mean ‘Regular Nature’ chips. Which is good because I was starting to get sick of all those fancy types of nature.
We saw posters for this melding of Macbeth and the Simpsons all over the place. If you know anything about it, or maybe have even seen it, feel free to tell me all about it.
Who down with OPP?
A few letters I’ve been meaning to write:
Dear Toronto,
I am super, super allergic to you.
But you were still fun!
yer pal,
ak
Dear Radiohead,
Please stop making your shirts in ‘heroin addict’ sizes. When I need to buy an ‘XXL’ to approximate the ‘L’ I usually wear, something is not right. Also, please continue to rock in earnest.
yer pal,
ak